Asia Cup 2012 Schedule

Asia Cup 2012 Schedule

The top four Asian cricket teams will lock horn in Asia Cup 2012 in March, 2012 for the regional cricket supremacy in Bangladesh where the Team India will defend their Asia Cup Title they won in Sri Lanka.

The tournament, which is held under the aegis of Asian Cricket Council after every two years, has a history of tough and hard-fought battles between three of the four Asian cricket power houses, i.e. Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka.

Amid talks of getting done with the One-Day format to save Test cricket, the Asia Cup 2012 will gauge the popularity of the ODI product of cricket in the Asian region and perhaps will have a great impact on how the international Cricket Council will think about it.

The first edition of Asia Cup was held in 1984 after Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka decided to form the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in 1983. The inaugural tournament was played in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and the country continued to remain the ACC Headquarters till 1995 when it hosted the tournament for the last time.

The tournament has been a super-hit in the sub-continent region but at the same time it was hit by regional political rifts between India and Sri Lanka in 1986 when they pulled out from the tournament owing to distracted relations. The 1993 edition of the tournament was cancelled after India and Pakistan were having grim political ties. India were also not part of the 2000 edition.

Sri Lanka have a unique record in the history of Asia Cups as the Islanders are the only team who has not only played all the tournaments but also appeared in the final of all the episodes of the Asia Cup.

The last, the 10^th edition, of the tournament was held in Sri Lanka where the traditional four Asian cricket teams fought it out for the supremacy and it was India who toppled Sri Lanka from the crown and pounced on their good run of form to win the title for a record fifth time but it was the first time in 15 years that they won the tournament.

The last time Pakistan hosted the Asia Cup was in June-July, 2008 when Sri Lanka had defeated India to wear the crown, thanks to newly-discovered orthodox spinner Ajantha Mendis who rocked India with his career-best figures of 6/13 after veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya clobbered 125 runs from just 114 balls to rescue Sri Lanka from 66/4.

Until now, India have won the Asia Cup title for the most time, 5 times; Sri Lanka have the privilege to wear it four times, while Pakistan have only managed to win it once and that was in 2000 in Bangabandhu Stadium at Dhaka where the Men in Green dislodged Sri Lanka by a comfortable margin of 39 runs in the final after scoring 277/4 from 50 overs.

The eleventh edition of the Asia Cup would be held once again in Bangladesh, and it would be interesting to see how Pakistan under Misbah-ul-Haq would perform in this tournament.

The Asia Cup 2012 Schedule follows here as under:

Related posts:

1. TSE Exclusive: PCB retains Misbah as captain for Asia Cup
2. TSE Exclusive: Joe Dawes to begin Team India stint in Asia Cup
3. ICC announces schedule for World Twenty20 Qualifier 2012
4. PCB selectors bypass ICC rule
5. TSE Exclusive: Whatmore to begin PCB stint with Asia Cup